US Cellular brings 8107 Windows Phone update to HTC 7 Pro

In a first for a US carrier, US Cellular has reportedly begun distributing the 8107 OS update to the HTC 7 Pro (aka Arrive) owners. We've had numerous reports come in from readers that they started receiving the update within the last 48 hours with more reports coming in.

That's both exciting and frustrating as US Cellular is the "sixth largest" carrier here in the States, serving up CDMA coverage to 6.1 million subscribers. Sprint too has the the HTC 7 Pro (aka Arrive) with CDMA bands meaning this update could, theoretically, be ready to roll out there--should Sprint choose to do so. Likewise, it's a bit funny to see the small carrier outshining the likes of AT&T, who has eight Windows Phones (if counting Venue Pro) and yet has not rolled out this update nor the previous 7740 just yet.

Still, with at least one US carrier now pushing this out, it gives some hope to Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and of course Sprint. But we're not betting anything here just yet.

Infuriating is the right word. MS needs to rethink this approach, especially when these updates are addressing bugs created by their own previous updates - bugs that effects their own MS software! If MS wants to become a serious player int he mobile space, then they need to make a commitment to their customers and ensure that vital OS fixes get out as quickly as possible. Leaving this up to carriers is a prescription for an dead-on-arrival WP.

BS.
Microsoft has the dollars to swing the same infrastructure stick that Apple does: Carriers get 0 say on updates. Instead, they have diluted their user experience for the benefit of a few pennies. For this level of update uncertainty I might as well have stuck with Android - at least on my Epic 4G Exchange Server 2003 worked.

I couldn't agree more! This whole mess about the carriers "requesting the update" is a change from what they said when MS was first talking about Windows Phone updates. No matter what Joe Belfiore says.
And someone NEEDS to drive that point hard to Joe and the rest of the Windows Phone team at MS. I completely understand that ODM's should be involved with updates. But carriers? Come on. Yeah, I know carriers need to support the phone/device, but they should be treated as if they were L1 Support. OR, MS should have a call center specific to Windows Phone to help resolve OS issues. If the issue is network related, escalate to the carriers.CARRIERS SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED WITH THE UPDATE PROCESS.

The thing about it is WP needs to be tested by each network to see if there are any clashes... When a company buys into a software, its typical they have to work out other bugs when adding new things. As is the way with our phones. What makes apple different is that they have 1 device. WP has multiple. If MS had only one phone, it would be easy to test the device. Not when there are many phones on different technology networks. It may seem that MS should push like apple but then we would wait a lot longer or get more issues on the updates since one fix may break another phone.